I sat next to a man who worked the groves. His family had been friends with mine for years. Mia was behind us, and I made her get down. She was the target and would be more identifiable. They probably had a mental image of her stuck in their heads.
Maybe the Russians had left. Maybe they were waiting us out and would ambush us.
The gates opened, the truck grunted and shimmied, and we took off.
Thirty minutes later we pulled into a place where the men unloaded the fruit. It was behind tall gates. We all went inside the factory, and from there, got into different makes and models of cars. Some old. Some new. Then we headed to Tommaso’s restaurant.
He and his family were gone by the time we got there. Guido and Vincenzo waited by the front door. Our men loitered around the property. Not enough to draw attention but enough to add security.
From there, we would get on a plane to New York. I was tired of fucking around. The Faustis were doing damage, but I wanted to finish it. I would crush whatever was left—any deals that were hitting the streets of New York.
I hustled Mia inside the restaurant, but I didn’t like the look on Guido’s face. It was pensive. Vincenzo pulled out a cigarette and lit up. Guido didn’t even bother to fan it.
My wife wasn’t paying any attention to them. She was staring at me. The look in her eyes… It was the same look she had after the altercation with Carlo and his boys.
She’d been turned on before we even made it to the car.
“Mia,” I said, tilting my head. Our group was just starting to trickle in. From the front of the restaurant and from the door in the back.
I took her arm and moved her to a more secluded area of the restaurant.
She stood with her back to the wall. I stood in front of her.
She shrugged. “It’s just that you’re so fine.” She drew the word out. “Especially when you’re at…work. You’re a man. It does something to me.”
“In short, you want me to fuck you,” I said.
She exploded with laughter. “That’s a blunt way of putting it. But yes. I want yousobad.That shirt. Those pants. The boots! Your entire body. The way you grin. Your eyes. The way you smell. How confident you are, even when you walk. Or when you drive. Or when you’re about to throw down. Everything.Fucka me.”
My mother’s influence again. She never said, “fuck me” but “fucka me,” with an Italian accent.
“Right now,” I said, pinning her to the wall with my stare. What this woman could do to me—she could slit my throat and I’d still fall at her feet.
She laughed even harder. “No, that was meant toward me. Like…fucka me, I’m so screwed. I just look at you and I want you to do things to me.Allsorts of things that would make me want to bite you.”
This time I pinned her with my body, one arm to the side of her head. She looked up at me, a drunk look in her eyes. I ran a hand up her thigh, under her skirt. Soaking wet.
She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath when I caressed her between the legs, tracing outside of her underwear. Her leg went around me, giving me better access. She moaned when my finger went beyond the cloth and teased her. She gasped out of pleasure when my finger slipped inside of her. I moved slow at first, until her walls relaxed around my finger, then another, and then I started to move faster, harder.
Her hand came to my shoulder, clawing. My mouth came against hers to drink down the sounds she was making.
She was mine and mine alone.
A feral pairing that fused lifelong mates.
I knew her body as well as she knew mine.
“You’re so beautiful, Mia,” I said, my breath fanning over her neck. “I love to watch you come. Come for me, mia bella.”
My mouth stole the noises she was making again. Louder. Out of her mind. I hit and pleasured spots that drove her mad over and over again. She was moving against me as I fucked her with my fingers. Her nails dug into my skin even harder, and her sweet whimper echoed on my tongue when she tightened around me and then let go, climaxing in a hot rush. She was crashing from the high, right into my arms. Her head rested on my shoulder, her breath coming out in pants on my neck.
We stood like that for a minute, before she said slowly, “I’m dizzy.”
I grinned. “It’ll pass in a few seconds.”
She shook her head. “No.You.You make me dizzy.”
We were quiet for another minute.
